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Can Counter-Strike Players Be Summed Up By Nation?
Thanks to GotFrag for its article discussing whether players from different countries are good at different aspects of online FPS Counter-Strike. The writer tries to claim: "Some countries, most of which are the leading ones in Counter-Strike, have certain specialities. This often means that the players in this country will have a 'special touch' in this area." Among the supposed conclusions are that Americans excel at "shooting [and] logistics", whereas Germans are best at "thinking [and] teamwork", and the French come off best when using "reflexes". How seriously can we take such broad conclusions?
Similar studies into cultural differences have been undertaken by, for example, Geert Hofstede et al. He identifies 5 dimensions by which cultures may differ. For instance some countries, like the US, score high on the individualistic scale, while countries like Germany or China score higher on the collectivist scale. Power distance indicates the need, or lack of, for structure in an organisational context. Cultures with high Uncertainty Avoidance will be take less risk and vice versa, etc, etc. Anyway... his summary explains it way better than I ever could. A country-by-country-chart can be found here.
In conclusion, according to this study, yes, where you are from may affect your fragging-routines, i.e. "storm the front" or "camp and defend". But it will certainly not be the only factor affecting performance!
Yes, however your culture (and thus nationality) can affect this. Do you think women and men play games the same? My wife is doing studies right now in her PhD program that study specifically the differences in gender in intelligence tests. You can generally say men are better spacially and women are better verbally.
People are different and culture plays a part. For example since everyone must "learn to eat" from scratch I bet we all prepare our food the same. Oh wait, we don't. There are thousands of examples of this in society.
If the differences in play style he has observed are due to culture then this makes sense. Canadian culture and American culture is remarkably similar. I occasionally go up there on business, and I sometimes forget that I'm in a different country (except in Quebec; that really is different)
By that logic, that makes Americans more likely to play FPSes and strategy games. So why do Sports games dwarf every other genre in the game industry? *cough*Madden*cough*
If you can show that, you will get tenure! :-)
Your thesis needs that the large majority of e.g. cognitive psychologists are idiots (and/or are in a conspiracy and lie).
Note that your theory is very similar to creationism (which needs to assume that, amongst other groups, paleontologists and biologists are in a conspiracy or idiots).
Idealists (marxism, diverse religions) have problems with part of personality and talents being built in. Without good support, it's just lysenkoism or creationism.
(I'm not discussing the article, which seems too make a chicken farm out of a feather. But there are good results supporting statistical variation in e.g. verbal and spatial talent between the sexes.)
Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
In many games, such as chess, there have been observed regional and national variations in particular skills. This is likely due simply to the fact that players geographically closer play each other more often and come to focus on those particular skills most effective against the locally popular style of play.
And blacks are gifted in "worship and celebration," white people "know how to tap into money," Native Americans are "gifted spiritually" (and know "how to sneak up on people"), Asians are "gifted in creation, creativity and inventions," and Hispanics are "gifted in family structure."
Remarks by Reggie White before the Wisconsin State Assembly, 3/25/98
I'm not one to get overly uppity about racial or cultural pigeonholing. I believe that stereotypes are probably there for a reason. But there's a difference, a logical leap that bridges the gap between "many people who are good at X hail from country Z" and "all people in country Z are good at X," which is not to be taken lightly.
Make all the jokes you want (I certainly do), but think hard about why you believe what you believe about other people before prejudging them.
People from California do not generally sound like they have accents in other countries. The reason I've heard for this is that most of the American television, and thus English, the world watches comes from California, so that "California Accent" becomes the de-facto standard way English is supposed to be spoken.
I found this to be the case when I travelled in Europe; people knew I was an American from my customs and mode of dress, but not once did anybody have difficulty understanding me or complain about my accent.
(I'm from California too, btw.)
Tim Horton was a hockey player. There are Tim Hortons in the US now too - Niagra Falls and Buffalo at least.
I don't know any native Californians, but upstate New York is only 2 hours away I can detect their accent and they can detect mine (i.e. a waitress in a restaurant knows we are from Canada). I notice all sorts of cultural differences when I travel in the US too.
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.